Windy Fields of Home
by MintSong
Summary: Sonic tapped his foot impatiently and glared down from the castle roof at the people filing in. He looked up to the stars and urged this shindig to be over so he could finally go explore that cave with the others like he promised. [mixed pre- and post-super genesis wave AUish]
1. Good Morning

Note: I have a weird, subtle sense of humor.

This is a mixed pre- and post-super genesis wave AUish. Robotnik didn't happen, just Eggman but at the same time Robotnik had happened. This was caused by the genesis wave and Robotnik had happened in the other reality. Not during the split world crisis. Everyone but Sonic and Eggman have forgotten the genesis wave incident and only they have glimpses of memories. Sonic can remember more if in contact with a chaos emerald.

This story has two main layers that will slowly interlock more and more so expects some bumps in the road.

Read and Review – so I know how the fic's being received.

Enjoy peoples.

* * *

Story time:

There was a soft rustling from the pages from the old record book she was reading as a gentle wind blew in. Sally smoothed out the next set of pages once more and shifted back over the datapad of current financial figures and sighed – she has gone so far back now that she'll have to exchange the currencies.

"Hi, Sal!"

She jerked hard, almost throwing a fist on battle-harden instinct. Her body relaxed as the realization settled over her that it was Sonic leaning over the back of her chair and her shoulder, eyeing the books spread out on the table. Shaking her head slightly she shallowly sighed. "Hi, Sonic," a smile escaped her control. She turned in her chair to find Sonic suddenly at the window pulling back the curtains on the board window behind her as far as they would stay without slipping despite them already being essentially pulled back the farthest they could be.

"I was wondering if you wanted to take a break," he said.

"Not now, Sonic. I need to look over these commerce figures."

"Why?"

"I need to be familiar with the Republic's workings. The Acorn may not rule as they once did but I still need to be knowledgeable of past and current events and policies to be effective."

"Current events, huh? Let's see – Eggman was a heartless jerk, his army was crackpot kiss-ups – the ones not forced into it, anyways – and Mr. Dodge has a new secret recipe for his chili on his chilidogs." He smirked. "I bet Tails I could figure the secret recipe out within the week." He walked over and leaned onto the desk's edge. "The kids at the elementary school also want to try making a garden but their teacher is a bit of a hardnose. Oh, and that couple that moved to the outskirts of the city from the border of the Badlands are apparently going to have a baby. It's probably why they left."

A smile spread across Sally's face. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

"So, are you going to take a break? Come hang out with us?"

"I still need to finish reviewing this as well as some errands to run – alone and in person. Perhaps later tonight? Come around five. I should be done by then." She smiled.

"You want to try Mr. Dodge's secret flavor?"

"How spicy is it?"

"So-so. There's something like ginger in the aftertaste."

She smiled. "Sure." Sonic smirked and turned to leave just as something pricked Sally's interest. "Hey, Sonic," she called and stopped him in mid-step.

He turned back to her. "Yeah, Sal?"

"You're getting better at being sneakier. I barely noticed the wind when you entered. It doesn't make sense. How are you . . . suppressing it? I wouldn't think it would be possible."

Sonic shrugged. "I dunno. Been experimenting." He flashed a smile and he's suddenly gone, this time accompanied with a strong wind that pulled toward the large double doors that served as the exit to the Castle's library.

Her own smile returned but was quickly hidden by a book as the elderly librarian almost as suddenly appeared into the main corridor yelling at the hedgehog who was already far away.

* * *

Afternoon.

Shoes skidded to a screeching stop on the worn cobbled path, the sound echoing down the corridor. One side of this particular corridor was opened to the garden, the other half attached to the building with a door once in a while down its length that went into the castle. Decorative arches ran down the garden side and some of the vining plants climbed up their columns and spilled onto the tiled roof in flowery bunches.

Sonic walked the rest of the way into the Acorn Castle pass a stoic, solid built guard who paid him little attention. None of the guards really did anymore at least when on duty, probably from his frequent visits. The living quarters where Sally most likely would be were in the upper stories. Maybe she was still in the Castle's library.

At first it was only vaguely that he noticed more guards but when he passed the two guards standing watch to one of the main service doors into a back room and walked into the midst of a small band of guards lingering halfway at ready he backpedaled. Was something happening tonight? He really hoped he hadn't forgotten anything. He would never hear the end of it. Sal had said to come at five. Was something happening at five tonight? He walked up to the closest guard and swallowed his bubbling embarrassment. "What's going on?"

The guard glanced at his superior who nodded. "The Council is with an audience tonight."

"Kinda late, isn't it? Usually they do that stuff in the mornings."

The guard shrugged.

"Have you seen Sal?"

"The Princess should be within the Castle. Try upstairs."

"Thanks," he started working his way through towards the opposite door.

"Sonic."

The hedgehog turned at to the Captain calling his name but continued slipping through the crowd. "Yeah?"

"Don't interrupt the talks." The Captain twisted back to having his glare jumping from guard to guard, keeping them on guard.

Sonic stared a moment longer before grabbing the doorknob and twisting it opened. He got a bad vibe off the atmosphere. Tense. They were waiting for trouble. _These talks, most likely. Must be something important. Sally should know._

Aside from the occasional guard positioned in this length of hall everything seemed quiet in this part of the Castle. As he passed a larger archway signaling another hallway crossing this one he paused in mid-step as he noticed a small cluster of guards standing down it a ways. Two other people were sitting on the benches that lined the wall near the large double doors into the Council's chamber, their dress very official looking. _Must be part of the talks_. Jokingly, he wondered if he should go say "hi" but they seemed on the clock.

R&R


	2. Talks

Sonic knocked on another door. Maybe Sally was in the main living room or whatever the official, royal term was again. He hadn't checked the library yet.

"Come in."

Sonic's expression immediately brightened and he quickly opened the door. "What's up downstairs?"

The chipmunk straightened up from leaning over something on a table near where she stood and twisted to look at him. "Oh, you're early."

"Not that early," he poked a thumb behind him towards the now closed door. "So who is the Council talking to?"

"Ambassadors from some of the other free mobian kingdoms and republics. The Council is trying to establish stronger alliances with more nations."

Sonic smiled. "The more the merrier," he looked out the window into the garden, "want to go for a walk?"

"Sure," she said as she slid a tablet onto a nearby shelf. "I'm pretty much finished for tonight."

* * *

Sonic leaped onto the boulder next to the bricked path in the garden. The boulder's shape was a little odd, it having been carved slightly to give it what was deemed a more aesthetically pleasing look, but Sonic still managed to balance just enough to keep his dramatic pose – one fist resting on his hip, the other fist over his heart. He leaned forward and looked up towards the neighboring rooftops of the Castle. "Hey Sal. Who am I?"

She laughed. "The portrait of my grandfather," she gingerly knocked him off the rock onto the damp grass. "Don't make fun of him," she said with a tinge of annoyance.

He held up his hands defensively with a smile. "I'm just playing." He notice Sally's wandering look. "Aw, come on, Sal. I . . ."

She perked up. "Oh, sorry. I was . . . just thinking."

"About what?" Sonic gingerly tried to hide that he was scraping the mud off the bottom of his shoe onto the side of a smaller boulder near the path. Hopefully nothing noticeable. He knew the gardener and let just say he and the gardener had their differences and the gardener was a very precise man, in his duty and aiming with projectiles.

Blue eyes caught up with green. "I was wondering if you would willing sit down long enough to learn more about the Republic's workings. You now its people but its inner functions are important and greatly affect these people's lives. Remember what I said earlier about understanding the kingdom in order to be effective?"

"What kind of functions?"

"Things like economics, law."

Sonic mumbled a little. "Maybe under a good shade tree. Heh, economics seem more interesting than law. That's usually a lot of weird lingo and double sided crap."

"The 'weird lingo' part can be true, older style 'lingo', but by double sided I think you mean loop holes."

"Yeah, plus those." With a quick step he jumped in front of Sally, snapping his hands behind his back. "But first I have a proposition for you to get out of the way first."

"Like what?"

"Tails, Amy, you and me exploring."

"Exploring what?" The hedgehog shrugged. Sally's light-hearted expression grew more serious.

"It'll be fun! It won't be as dangerous as breaking into Eggman's base but fun, especially with friends. Tails need to get away from the lab for a bit. Just good ol' exploring. Finding cool places. Meeting new people. Eggman is _currently_ not destroying the multiverse," there was a taint of anger in his eyes, the green of his eyes vibrant in the dimmed light. "He's influencing our lives too much."

"Huh?" Sally stared a moment but let it subside. _Destroying the multiverse . . ._ _?_ "Don't you explore as a pass time?"

"But with friends!" he stressed, smirking.

A smirk played across her own face. "You want to have Knuckles join, too?" she said half-jokingly.

Sonic paused. "Nah. A couple days ago I talked to him and he said he was busy with something. He said it all vague-like. We can always crash in on him. You know, to check on how he and the Chaotix are doing."

Sally chuckled at Knuckles' possible expression if they literally just crashed in.

"Four's a good number for simple exploring, some wiggle room built in. I found a cool cavern a couple weeks ago. Weird rock formations. Cool but weird. Tails had said he wanted to check it out when he had time. Oh, we can bring Nicole's handheld. She can stay linked to Sky Patrol and keep us informed. If anything happens I'll just speed run us where we need to be."

Sally hunched forward slightly as if exhausted. "You have actually been planning this, haven't you?"

"Maybe ~ . . . so what do you think?"

She half-tried to hide her smile with her hand. "Give me tomorrow to tell Father and Mother your plans."

"Right! I'll go tell Tails!"

"Sonic, it isn't defini-," he was gone, ". . . –tive yet," she finished quietly. She let her half raised paw ease back down.

* * *

The room grew quiet as the people within the chamber settled to a degree and the tension rose to almost sparking through the air. The king stood. Members of the Council and the delegates followed until everyone in the room was standing.

"Together we are strong. Together we can defeat Eggman – once and for all."

A din of clapping erupted.

The moon swayed higher.


	3. Mobius' Greatest Party Thrower

"So you two and Uncle Chuck are actually going?" Sonic said as he straightened fully, sitting up from his position laying off the edge of his parents' bed. He quietly sighed again, this time because this official dinner King Max was holding at Acorn Castle had put off their little adventure for nearly two weeks more.

His mother hands worked over the simple dress. Despite her efforts the creases reformed. She sighed herself. She was going to have to steam it. "Yes. We were invited by the King after all."

Sonic's nose wrinkled slightly. "With all that royal and state air the dinner's going to be stuffy and a _target_."

Bernadette turned to her son. "This is important to the Republic, Sonic. If these new alliances can be solidified it could mean more strength to stop Eggman." Her son's ears twitched, his gaze dropping.

"Yeah-h-h." _That is a good point_ , he muttered over in his mind.

"If you are so worried why don't you come and watch for danger right on the floor. We still have your tuxedo from Bunnie and Antonio's wedding. We can steam it with your father's tux' and my dress. You can even keep Sally company."

"Sally will be too busy." His gaze remained adverted as he thought it over. "Nah. If anything happens the tux' will just be constricting. I'll just keep watch with the others." He scooted off the bed. "Do you really have to go to that dinner?"

"Sonic, we know how to take care of ourselves. We were soldiers once," she paused a moment, "and a part of that never really leaves you," she whispered. She pulled out a drawer from the dresser and curled over several layers of clothes to reveal a small, simple but sturdy metal box. There were some scorch marks on the metal and a few deep dints. With the hand not holding the clothes at bay she opened it. Old pictures of her and Jules' grandparents, parents, of Sonic as a very small child and a few good ones from his fifteenth and sixteenth birthday from the mountains of photographs they had taken. She gingerly flipped them to the side with care and mused over the small amount of jewelry that collected at the bottom of the box. She wondered how much jewelry she should wear. It _is_ a state dinner. _Sigh_ . . . she was a bit out of her element with a _state dinner_. How formal or extravagant should she dress for something like this?

* * *

The twisting, dancing chords of two violins swelled over the small orchestra and the background din of voices coming through the windows into the Castle's garden together. Just through the main doors dancers twirling tightened in response. Shifting clusters of chatting groups gathered and lingered around the border of the dancers' territory and also nestled in between the patterns of round, dressed up tables.

"You sure you don't want anything?" Chuck asked as he leaned over for his empty plates after standing up.

"Yeah," Bernadette answered, "I'm good for now. Tonight maybe a long evening so I don't want to be weighed down too heavily by an overstuffed stomach."

"Alright, I'll snatch some of those square tarts for us for later," he chuckled.

Bernadette's gaze drifted before finding her husband watching the dancing. She placed a paw on his shoulder. "Do you want to dance?"

He turned back around in his seat. His head dipped almost as if embarrassed. "I . . . never was much of a dancer."

She patted his shoulder. "Oh, don't be like that." The glittering sparkles cascading across some of the lady dancers' dresses past her husband caught her eye. "Their dresses are quite beautiful, aren't they?"

"Hmm." There was a sudden spark in his eye. He smirked and motioned as if to tickle his wife. "Those dresses would be even more beautiful if they were on you."

Bernadette snorted. "Don't you dare."

Jules' smirk broadened into a full-fledged smile.

"If anyone ask, Sonic got his brazenness from you," she returned his smile. "Wait, weren't you just being bashful a moment ago." Her smile morphed into her own playful smirk. Her husband shrugged lightly.

"Excuse me, may I sit here?"

Both hedgehogs turned to find a young woman – a pale yellow dog-mobian – standing beside them, fanning herself near Bernadette. Vaguely they both realized she had been standing nearby before, further into the background.

"I need to get away from the excitement for a moment," she smiled broadly.

"Yes, of course," Bernadette motioned to one of the empty seats.

The dog-mobian quickly but with a trained gracefulness took a seat. A paw came to pat at the beaded braids in her pinned hair. "Lovely party."

"Yes," Bernadette turned to her husband, "I was just trying to get my husband to go dancing."

Jules flashed Bernie a small smile. "Heh."

"The Acorn King seemed to not have spared any expense in this celebration, but of course, given what is being celebrated."

Both quietly noticed the strange wording of King Max's title.

"I guess King Max is a pretty good party-thrower," Jules commented.

A cupped hand gracefully fluttered up to bashfully cover the young woman's stained lips. "Oh!" the word danced delicately off her tongue. "So informal. Are you friends of the King!"

Bernadette wondered if she blushed from the comment. "We are acquainted."

The lady spread a smile over her already existing smile. "How did you meet the King? You must be in his favor to be invited tonight."

"Um . . . through my brother-in-law. My husband's brother," she replied, "and our son is friends with King Max's daughter, Princess Sally." She was almost startled by the amount of realization that visibly flashed across the woman's face.

"How silly of me! You wouldn't happen to be relatives of the Sonic The Hedgehog?"

Jules stifled his chuckle in the background.

"We're his parents." Bernadette took the liberty of taking another bite while the young lady processed this information but the questions came sooner than expected.

"And from whom did Sonic The Hedgehog inherit his famous speed?"

The hedgehog couple froze. They . . . didn't have an answer for that.

"Oh, um," Bernadette mumbled. She fumbled for an answer but one didn't come.

* * *

Cautious not to accidentally spill anything, Chuck carefully made his way back towards the table with his plate of steaming food. The mix of smells drifting from his plate was intoxicating.

He paused as he noticed the third occupant at their table. He didn't recognize the young lady. Her dress was not typical for anyone from New Mobotropolis. The base of her dress was not like people from the Dragon Kingdom but had similar, simplified elements woven and threaded into a ball gown. She must be from one of the visiting states, perhaps one from the Dragon Kingdom or the dress simply was a merging of different styles. Soon enough his little brother's gaze found him and their gazes locked.

Uncle Chuck slowed his pace trying to give himself more time to identify the moods of the three occupants. Surely his brother was overreacting. By the time he reached the table all eyes seated around the table were on him. He deposited his plate delicately to prevent anything spilling onto the embroidered tablecloth. "Are you two going to introduce me?"

Bernadette did a double take between Chuck and the woman, finally pausing at the dog-mobian. She gathered herself and smiled wide. "I'm afraid we don't know your name. We can't introduce properly if we don't know your name."

The woman giggled again. "I'm just an attendant to one of the visiting kingdoms."

Chuck took a seat next to his brother.

"According to rumors," the lady fidgeted in her seat and smile shyly, "Sonic The Hedgehog – your son –" she added the last phrase with a more friendly feel, "had his speed after that," she leaned back and fanned herself, "awful Eggman seized Mobotropolis." She peeped over the edge of her fluttering fan at the hedgehogs, waiting for them to continue in.

"He was too young to be fighting a war. All those children were," Jules replied.

The dog-mobian paused, her expression still hidden behind her fan . . . and then looked towards the music stage, taking a long time to watch a violinist stroke her block of resin slow and deliberately down her bow. "Oh, the musicians seemed to be getting ready to perform again and I promised a dance to a certain someone." She winked, gathered her shirts and elegantly lifted off her chair. She turned and curtsy. "I'm so sorry for so abruptly ending our conversation."

"It's alright," Bernadette waved her off. Once the dog-mobian disappeared behind some of the more private, curtained off side tables she jerked towards her husband and bit her lip. Her gaze continued over to Chuck. "We should figure out who she's with."

"What's going on?" Chuck asked. "Do you know her?"

"No," both answered.

"What's the matter?"

"I have a bad feeling." Bernadette took a few final spoonful of food.

"From what I caught it sounded like gossip and back-talking Eggman. Are you sure she isn't just one of Sonny-boy's fan girls?"

Bernadette thought it over. "Chuck, do you think you could try a more direct approach? We'll-," she patted her husband's knee, "we'll go introduce ourselves to some of the guests. It's not every day one is surrounded by so many leaders." Jules clasped his metal paw over her soft one.

Chuck cocked an eyebrow. "Don't make it look too obvious. We don't want an international incident." He sighed, his whiskers rustling. "Let me quickly finish my food first."

"Alright then," Jules said as he straightened. He found and stored the young woman's picture to his physical memory along with the video he had taken during the conversation after Bernadette had signaled him to. He helped his wife out of her chair.

Bernadette kissed her husband on the cheek. "Come on. Let's go be sociable."

Jules smirked wide and returned the peck. "I don't think we've done this much sneaking since we were part of the Robotroplis underground."


End file.
